Love My Way
by mg78
Summary: When it comes to love, three is an uncomfortable crowd, as Yukino founds out when Haruka’s secret admirer finally shows up. Renamed the story’s title based on an 80s song because I felt that it was more reflective of the story.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Love My Way

**Author**: MandyGirl78

**Anime/Manga**: Mai HiME

**Paring**: Haruka/Yukino/???

**Genre**: Humor/Romance

**Warning**: Language, Mild Adult Content (no Lemon though), Yuri

**Summary**: When it comes to love, three is an uncomfortable crowd, as Yukino founds out when Haruka's secret admirer finally shows up. Renamed the story's title based on an 80s song because I felt that it was more reflective of the story.

**Disclaimer**: Don't own any of the characters from Mai HiME. If I did, Shizuru would be missing a girlfriend! :D

**Note**: Don't like Yuri/lesbian stories? Don't read it. It's as simple as that. The story is presented mostly from Yukino's POV, but there will be times where it will be presented in Haruka's POV.

I got a beta reader, but the more the merrier! So if you want to beta-read this as well, then don't be shy, just send me a PM!

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It was yet another day at Fuka Academy. Haruka was doing her usual rant to me, complaining about that 'Bubuzuke head', Shizuru. Being her closest friend, I listened with sympathetic ears. Even though I knew her for all these years, I still can't understand her deep hatred and jealousy for Shizuru. When we finally came to her locker there was a bunch of love letters sticking out. They were written mostly in English, albeit incorrectly. I know that she have gotten quite a few looks in her way. After all, she's very attractive and has a beautiful body, but everybody fears her wrath. They don't call her 'the lion' around here just for nothing. Thus nobody every really make an attempt to ask her out, which is just the way I want it.

This has been going on for about two weeks now. I wouldn't dare mention it to Haruka but deep inside I wanted to find the jerk who kept on writing those retarded love letters. You would think with my skills of gathering and obtaining information I would be able to find out by now, but somehow that person eluded me.

"Whoever wrote these doesn't know English very well. It's not 'I Luv Yu'."

"That's not how you write 'I Love You' in English?"

"No it's not Haruka-chan, that's why you failed English twice."

Before Haruka was about to start a debate with me, the secret admirer finally showed up. She was a beautiful brunette with blue eyes and a voluptuous pair of breasts bigger than what I would ever have, almost close to that of Haruka's and Mai's. I know her very well, she's in my grade and she's in the only class that I'm not taking honors in, gym class.

"Yumemiya Arika?"

"Hi there Yukino-san."

She transferred about three weeks ago from another school, a strict orthodox school. From what I gathered she was kicked out of the school because of 'lesbian tendencies' she showed to other female students, which included quite a bit of skin ship. Her nickname over there was 'she-wolf'. The school suggested her parents to transfer her to here because, as I quote, they said "Fuka is perfect for your daughter, there's a bunch of people that she can 'relate to' over there." Yes, our school has that notorious reputation throughout Japan…

"Are you the one who wrote those letters to me?"

"Yes I am!"

"But-but-but you're a girl." Haruka stuttered out from her shock.

"Yes I am, what's wrong with that?"

Mikoto's cluelessness is the result of her sheltered life, but Arika's the result of her own stupidity. She's more oblivious than Mikoto and Natsuki combined. Haruka was still in her shock mode, having a hard time uttering out a word, which I could never recall that ever happening in our years of knowing each other.

"Ano, ano, ano…"

"So are you going to be my girlfriend?"

This girl really cuts to the chase! Haruka was still speechless.

"Ano, ano, ano…"

"Good! Now that you're my girlfriend, I can do this to you." She planted her hands on Haruka's cheek and then quickly drew Haruka's face to hers. The she planted a French kiss on her. I saw Haruka's eyes clearly and she was clearly in shock and so was everybody in the hallway, which include Tate, Mai and Mikoto, Natsuki and Shizuru, and Chie and Aoi. Chie and Aoi are the last people on this earth that I wanted to see it, for Chie, the Gossip and Social Network queen, was already taking pictures of it with her iPhone and was blasting it on Twitter. I knew that she was in shock, but why didn't she fight back? Why did she let Arika to keep on kissing her?

"Oh my Chie-chan, I never though Arika-san was that aggressive."

"But that's good! I can post this on Facebook and MySpace!"

Note to self; expose the photos I got on Aoi and Chie's activities in the Dark Room on my Facebook and MySpace pages ASAP! Chie, did you forget that I'm your primary source for all the dirt you like to collect?

Being the typical male, Tate was enjoying the misplace affection Arika was giving to Haruka.

"Oh man this is hot! I can't wait to show this to the boys! That's why I love this school." And he took some pictures with his cell phone!

Natsuki was more in disgust than in shock when she brought it up to Shizuru. "Baka! Does that girl have any shame?"

Shizuru saw the expression on my face. I knew she saw it but she doesn't know that I know about it. It looked like Shizuru was a little concerned about me but I'm not totally sure. Apparently after a while she was less than impressed and decided to leave.

"Come on my little Natsuki, this is nothing compare to what we've done together!" She said in her usual teasing yet seductive tone. Natsuki's face turned a deep crimson red as they walked away.

After the kiss Arika then asked Haruka a favor.

"I heard that you're good in English," which received quite a few snickers from the crowd, especially Tate. "And I got an English test coming in two days; can you help me with it?"

Haruka was still in shock, so she answered like a zombie. "Ano… Hai?"

"Oh thank you so much" As she said cheerfully then she quickly did a Mikoto, where she drove her head in between Haruka's breast while hugging her. That even made Mikoto blushed.

While her blush was still fresh Mikoto asked Mai "Am I really that bad, Mai?"

Mai, who is very conscious of other people's feelings like I am, told her "No, you're not that bad," which was a flat-out lie.

Mikoto just smiled and said "Arigato."

It was at that point that I quickly walked away from the scene. Haruka didn't notice that I left but it didn't matter. I quickly went to the bathroom and headed straight to the stalls. I started to cry my heart out. I can't believe what just happened. That girl only knew Haruka for only 30 seconds and she got father with her than I ever did. Now she will never love me. Boo-hoo-hoo!

Hold on, this is ridiculous. I got to get myself together. Crying won't do any good to me. This is only the beginning; I still can win her heart. I'm going to get Haruka back and win her heart, no matter what.

*****


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Japanese Terminology:

Hentai – Pervert

Other Terminology:

"The Family" – A term used by lesbians to describe others who are lesbians.

Alpha Beta – A fraternity made up of mostly jocks, from the move "Revenge of the Nerds".

Author's Note – The event is taking place in early November 2004 yet the Carnival event already happened. How could this be? Well since the Obsidian Lord was upset with how things turn out in the Carnival, he made everybody repeat the year but he forgot to erase their minds of the incident. Thus all the parties involve remembered the Carnival, their HiMEs, and everything else that took place. How he came up with the idea for everybody to relive the past year was that through Reito he was watching "Groundhog's Day", the day before the final event.

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As soon as I got out of the stall, a light blue-haired girl came into the bathroom. I know her very well; she's my second best friend next to Haruka, Miyu Greer. Unlike Haruka or practically anyone else, I can talk to her about casual fun topics such as Quantum Mechanics, Fuka's temperature and precipitation, Metaphysics, Chaos Theory, and sometimes shopping. When I got up to the sink I started to chat with her.

"How are you doing Miyu-chan?"

"I'm affirmative. The temperature is 26 degrees Celsius (that's about 78 degrees Fahrenheit) and it's at the beginning of November. There are no precipitation coming for the next four days, the tasks at church are running smoothly, and Alyssa's happiness status is satisfactory. Life could not be better."

"I wish I could say the same," I accidentally blurted out.

"Why, what seems to be your dilemma?"

"Nothing really important," I said as I tried to cover up my sadness quickly. Miyu wasn't fooled one bit.

"Something is wrong. My infrared vision shows some recent activity near you tear ducts," meaning she knew that I just finished crying. "You can inform me of your situation."

"I found out who Haruka-chan's secret admire is," I said as tears started to stream down my face again. She knew already how I felt about Haruka when she once analyzed my body temperature during a time I was physically close to Haruka. Plus she saw me checking Haruka out a few times.

"I see, but something else must have happen. It makes no logical sense to be angry just because you have knowledge of the secret admire"

"Yes, there sure was. The secret admirer actually kissed Haruka-chan, and I mean an actual French kiss! And Haruka-chan didn't even bother to resist"

I saw Miyu's eyes jumped a bit, but she quickly returned back to her stoic self and said "So I see the secret admire used a straightforward approach. Can you disclose the secret admirer's name?"

"Yumemiya Arika"

Her eyes jumped once again when I said that.

"That girl? Oh my…"

That right there told me she doesn't have a positive view of Arika.

"So you do know her?" I said.

"Affirmative. Her mother name is Sayers Lena and she works with SEARRS, but only the retail store front. She is not involved in any of their background scenes or schemes from what I can confirm. Her father is a biologist named Yumemiya Shiro. As for Arika-san herself, her IQ is only 90, barely above retardation, which perplex me since both of her parents are very intelligent people."

"Well genetics work in a funny way Miyu-chan. It's more like a crap shoot than strategic planning."

"From all the analysis I've done on humans I am in total agreement with your statement. I must note that my information is somewhat archaic, since I am no longer in employment with SEARRS."

"But you still got that lifetime 20% discount on all products purchased from any Searrs stores worldwide?"

"Absolutely, I can't live without it!" she responded back with a smile.

"Cool, that means I can still get that skirt I had my eyes on for a while." However my mind went back to Haruka, as much as I didn't want it to, "Still, I can't believe I lost Haruka-chan that way, however I got to find a way to get her back"

"Well according to my data, you and Haruka were never in a romantic relationship."

"I know that, but now I need to find a way to win her heart and finally become my lover."

Miyu is an android, so emotional response is not her specialty. Yet I knew she was trying to be sympathetic to me when she said stoically "I wish I could assist you in your romantic dilemma, but since romance is not a logical concept nor is it my specialty I cannot give you expert advice on the subject."

That was a true fact, since she's in the same boat that I am. She has her eyes on one girl, Alyssa Searrs, whom she protects since her days at SEARRS. The problem is that she's only 10 years old. What am I talking about? This is anime, having sex with 10 year olds is ok, if not, rather encouraged as sick as it sounds. But Miyu is no hentai freak, she would rather wait until Alyssa is mature enough to pursue her. Funny thing though is on her Microsoft Outlook, she had April 1, 2010 marked. The note on it said "Introduce Alyssa to womanhood." I'm not going to get into more details…

"I understand it's not your specialty. However thanks for listening to me."

"No problem, but right now we need to be expedient in getting to our Calculus Honors class, we have approximately 47 seconds."

"Right! Let's get going!" I said and we immediately left the bathroom heading straight to our class.

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Back in the office, Fumi was looking at Arika's papers. She didn't like what she was reading. Her grades were even worse than an American public high school student. Mashiro was with her, without the wheelchair as she was looking outside through the window. She came back from the library gate to assist Fumi in her duties. Fumi is still the Director of the school and pretty much runs the school while Mashiro has taken the role as her advisor.

"Did you really want to come back to assist me?"

"Absolutely, do you know what it's like to deal with Nagi all day long, let alone for 300 years?" she gasped.

"I don't even want to imagine. Are you sure that we want her in our school? Her grades are atrocious and she makes Jessica Simpson look like Marie Curie! I mean this girl hasn't past Algebra, did a book report on the Three Stooges, and it was rumoured that last year during Christmas time, when she heard that Christmas was around the corner, she went looking for it! Do we really want her in our school?" Fumi questioned to Mashiro, looking at her to reply back.

"I think she's perfect. She's what we need to beat out Ototachibana Academy for this year's overall league standings. She lettered in eight sports back in Windbloom Academy. She was last year's MVP in Volleyball, Soccer, and Baseball for her former school's league. This is useful since Ototachibana is killing us this year in Women's Volleyball and Soccer. She's also quiet good in Track and Field and Tennis. Hopefully with her we can finally beat their Track and Field and Tennis star. We got enough Einstein's in our schools. We need some athletes to balance the school." The real reason why she accepted her registration was that because Mashiro has the hots for Arika. Her deepest sexual fantasies of Arika included her wearing their gym uniform.

"Enough Einsteins, are you kidding me? We got more than enough jocks to make the Alpha-Betas proud! We got Natsuki-san, Tate-san, Mikoto-san, and many others. Plus with Mikoto-san, we are killing everybody in Kendo."

"That's true but I still think she will be a great asset to the school." She said while thinking in her head _"A great asset she sure has!"_ "Plus from what I've heard from her old school, there's no question that she's part of the family, so she'll feel home here."

"That's another reason why I don't want her here. Our reputation as the school for lesbians is infamous. People call this place the 'Yuri academy' or the 'school of Sappho'. Every time I go to a conference or meeting, whenever I tell people I work for Fuka, I get snickers! Do you know that we are the butt of the private school system here in Japan? Do you know how many women hit of me when I tell them I'm with Fuka? And do you know how many men get turned off when I tell them about Fuka? They immediately walk away from me!" Fumi finished with a frustrated look on her face.

"Men getting turn off because they think you're a lesbian? Are you sure about that?" Mashiro looked at her with a questionable look.

"Well someone of them try to get me to do a threesome with another girl! But unlike most of the girls in this place, I'm not into girls!" she explained in frustration.

"I understand your frustration and our school's reputation may be true, but we are also the innovators and the most progressive of the schools. We have more international students than any other school in Japan, especially Ototachibana. We got more types of classes than anyone else since we've adopted the Western way of having the students go to different classes. Our students do better than any school in Japan when it comes to History, English, and World Events. So if they want to laugh at us, well that's fine with me. We will still be the #1 school in Japan while they are still laughing." They finally won the best school in Japan spot after Ototachibana held that spot for the previous five years.

Fumi agreed with her in reluctance, but she added "Okay, well let's see how things turn out for her. If she does poorly in her schoolwork, I will have a tutor assigned to her. Do you at least agree with that?"

"That's fine with me." She willingly agreed. She already knew who it might be and she didn't have to look too far to find her…

*****


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Japanese terminology:

Arigato – Thank you

Kaichou – Leader

Sensei – Teacher, leader, sir, ma'am, etc.

Other terminology:

Absoltively - Absolutely, positively. I got that one from an old sitcom called "Newhart".

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During class breaks, while I was at my locker getting my books for the next class, Mai came up to me. Interestingly enough, Mikoto wasn't there attached to her as usual.

"So your best friend has a girlfriend now?"

"Yeah, I guess so," I said. I really didn't want to talk about it. I was still in shock and despair over what happened.

"Well it's about time! Maybe she acted that way because of all that pent-up frustration ashe probably had in not having a mate. I'll be very happy if she makes Haruka-san mellow out."

I know that Mai didn't mean any harm in what she said but I couldn't help getting mad over that statement. If anyone should be mellowing Haruka out, it should be me. I can't help it but I'm starting to get the feeling that people think she's better off with her than with me. No, I can't think like that, I'm just making it up, yet it feels like the truth.

"If you say so," and I immediately left the area. I couldn't talk about it anymore to Mai. She's a sweet and caring person but she can be on the annoying stupid side at times. Then Miyu came up to Mai and saw a worried look on her face.

When she finally noticed Miyu, she turned around and said "She's not taking this very well, isn't she?"

Miyu shook her head and said "No, not at all."

"So the rumors are true, she does love Haruka-san after all?"

"Very much, she was her most important person. After all, when Kaichou-san exterminated her Child, she went with it."

Mai closed her eyes and did a small sigh from what she heard and then paused a bit. After that, without looking at Miyu, she said "Oh dear…"

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The following day at Arika's dorm, Haruka was helping her out with the English test. If it was any other person, I would have warned them about asking Haruka for anything related to English, or Japanese. But since it's that pea brain girl, I'm glad that Haruka is tutoring her. Maybe her stupidity will turn Haruka off, or maybe Haruka's malapropisms will drive her nuts but I'm not betting on that one. It somewhat puzzled me that she needed help with English, considering the information I've gathered on her. She lived for a few years in America and has a good command in her English. However her grammar is poor, she speaks like an inbred country hick, and her spelling sucks. You can imagine how much laughter I got from that backward logic.

"So ya' good in English, huh?"

"Of course I am, I'm a cheese whiz when it comes to English! I mean after all, I'm not illegitimate (illiterate)!" she boasted. Modesty was never her strong suit.

"Oh that's great, my teacher told me my grammar and my spelling is terrible."

"Well you came to the right person. I can absoltively help you out with your graham cracker (grammar) and spilling (spelling)," she said proudly.

"Well then let's get started!" she said as she pulled out the homework paper. "How do ya spell 'ignorant'?"

"Oh that's easy! I-G-N-I-T…"

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The next day, they were holding hands when they entered the school. Everybody's eyes were on them, they became the current interest in the school and it made me sick. Yet out of all the people staring, there was only one person who caught Haruka's attention. The woman was looking at the couple with some indifference.

"What the hell are you looking at bubuzuke-head?"

"Nothing at all," she said as she sipped her tea and then she finally left.

When they were walking to Haruka's locker, since it was the closest, one of Arika's new friend showed up.

"Hey Arika-chan, how are you doing?"

"I'm great Erstin-chan, how bout' you?" she said. Erstin Ho is a beautiful blonde student in our grade whom she knew since they went to Windbloom together. Just like Arika, she transferred here this year.

"I'm fine thank you. So is this your girlfriend?"

"Yep, this is Suzushiro Haruka, isn't she a doll?" Haruka immediately blushed when she heard that. I was in the background a few meters away watching and listening to this. For all theses years that I've seen her blushed, I never seen her blushed like that before.

"More like a doll on roids rage if you ask me." Tate said. I didn't know he was there until he told me that. He doesn't have much love or respect for Haruka because he's basically under her in the Student Council. Basically it goes something like this: Shizuru is the Kaichou of the Fuka Student Council and any not-so-glamorous or humiliating tasks are handed off to Haruka, who is the Executive Director. Nevertheless, Haruka hands off the dirtiest and most humiliating tasks to Tate and he has no choice but to do them. Thus Tate is not fond of her one bit.

"Tate-san please," I said adequately.

"I don't know what Arika-san sees in that blowhard idiot. But then again Arika is not stable herself."

"No she isn't, but could you please be quiet so I can hear what is going on?"

"Oh so you doing your eavesdropping again, aren't you? Why are you eavesdropping on your best friend and her girl – Oh I see," he said with a sly grin on his face. "A bizarre love triangle is going on here," he smirked.

"Tate-san, will you shut up!" I said. Sometimes I just want to punch that jerk.

He jumped back and said "Okay, okay. Jesus…" He immediately walked away with a grin and said 'this is going to be interesting.' Now with that fool out of the way I listened on to the conversation.

"So what about Nina?" Arika smirked like a devil.

"She's not interested in me," she said with a sad puppy look on her face. Nina Wang is another Windbloom transfer who is in our grade; she's got long raven blue hair just like Natsuki. She has a huge crush on her but it seems that it's mostly one-sided. Which is too bad, Nina doesn't know that she's passing up on a good thing. She looked so cute when she's pouting. I mean she's nice and pretty and while she's no rocket scientist she is above intelligence. If things don't work out between me and Haruka and if she's still available, then maybe - Hey what's wrong with a backup plan? Well I can't help it, I like blondes!

"She likes Tate instead," she said with discouragement.

"Tate? Eewww!" Haruka said. "Your friend got bad buds (taste) for sure," she sure does.

"Huh? Do you mean 'bad taste'?" she corrected, not being used to Haruka's malapropisms.

"That's what I just said, bad buds."

Erstin just looked at her with a questionable look for a while then she moved on.

"Anyway I got to get ready for Japanese Government. It's another snoozer on the judicial system."

"I can imagine. It's not like in America where you have Judge Judy and the Divorce Court," Arika said. "Anyways have fun," she smiled.

Erstin just rolled her eyes and said "Whatever" and head to class.

After a few seconds, Haruka spoke up "That was the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me."

"What did I say to you?" she said, having a short-attention span equivalent to that of a 30-second commercial.

"You called me a dog (doll). No one has ever called me that, not even Yukino."

"But you are sweetie! You're like a Barbie doll, but a lot tougher."

Haruka was really turning red and was very bashful. I can't believe I was seeing this. Is this really Haruka? Did somebody or something took over her body?

"That even better than when Tate once called me a 'mentally inbrain (insane) Marcia Brady. Because of that I hate The Brainy Branch (Brady Bunch)!"

"Don't let him get to ya', he doesn't know a good thing even if it sat on top of that silly hairstyle of his. Besides, the Brady Bunch is a great show, I like Marcia Brady."

Not willing to talk about a show she really despised, she changed the subject.

"How did you know her?"

"We went ta' school together at Windbloom. She's one of ma' close friends and so is Nina-chan."

"Oh so she's more that just an aquarium (acquaintance) to you?"

"Yep, but she's just a friend, you're my girlfriend and you are the most important person to me," she said as she hugged her and put her head on Haruka's shoulders.

"And you are too," she said feebly. It sounded rather weak and not much conviction in it but still, what the hell? Why is she letting her hug her up like that? I couldn't watch anymore of it so I left and head straight to my class. Physics Honors was the usual, but Physics was not on my mind. More like Chemistry, as in the chemistry that was going on between Haruka and Arika, and how that chemistry was blowing up my chance with Haruka.

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Later on Arika went to English class and took the test. The following day the test scores came back. The score was listed on the wall at the back of the class. It was listed based on the test score, from highest to lowest. She was at the very bottom, with a 5 and the only reason she got the 5 was because she filled out her name, a date in the correct order. The teacher was Mr. Wilkins, a no-nonsense New Englander.

"Oh man, mama is goin' ta' kill me," She said.

"Young lady, I want to see you right after class, immediately!"

"Yes Mr. Wilkins," she said timidly.

Right after class he chewed her out; I wish I was there to see it.

"Arika-san, what is the meaning of this?" he said as he held her test paper in front of her face.

"The meaning of what?"

"Don't play dumb with me girl. What you wrote for the answers on the test. Are you trying to make a mockery out of this class because you know how to speak English?" He didn't think that Arika was really that stupid. He thought that she was being a smart ass and was just playing dumb. He didn't think it was possible for one person to be that stupid. Poor guy, if only he knew.

"What's wrong with them?" she asked naively.

"What's wrong with them? EVERYTHING!" he screamed at her with that disturbing Bostonian accent. "You didn't get one single correct answer!"

"Huh, I don't get it," she said in her typical dumfounded nature. He was turning a furious red in front of her eyes and was about to explode like a Hawaiian volcano.

"You misspelled many words in the test, like how you spelled the word 'constitution' with 'constipation'! You use the wrong homonyms such as when you were suppose to write 'bear', you wrote 'bare'! In the first sentence, when I told you to write 'I gave the old gentleman a veggie', you wrote 'I gave the old geezer a wedgie'! Then when you were supposed to write 'Greet the guests, eat the foods', you wrote 'Greet the foods, eat the guests'!"

"Well that what my grandmother used to say."

"I don't believe that your grandmother would say something that stupid!" he screamed back. "But that's not even the worse of it. In one of your many misspelled words, for the word 'coming', YOU SPELL THE WORD WITH AN 'O'!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

"But I thought it with a 'k'!" she replied.

At that point he basically lost it and steamed out "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! AND GO DIRECTLY TO THE DIRECTOR'S OFFICE, PRONTO!!! AND TAKE THAT PIECE OF TRASH TEST WITH YOU!"

"OK" she said with trepidation and quickly went to the director's office. When she got there, she told the administrative assistant that she needs to see Fumi.

"I need to see the director, Himeno-sensei? Mr. Wilkins, I mean Wilkins-sensei sent me here."

The administrative assistant called her through the intercom and said "Sensei, are you available?"

"Yes I am, do you need me for something right now?"

"Probably, Yumemiya-san wants to see you. She was sent her by Wilkins-sensei."

When she heard that, she laid her hands on her forehead and sighed "Oh God…" She went to her draw in her desk and pulled out some Alka-Selser, before placing them in her cup that already had some water in it. Finally she replied back to the assistant "OK, you can bring her in."

While she was sipping some of the fizzy water, Mashiro came out from the other room. She was doing the school's budgeting.

"Did something happen to Arika-san?"

"Yes, something happen. Wilkins-sensei sent her here. I have a feeling it has to do wit either her schoolwork or her sleeping in class again."

"Let's not assume until she gets in here," Mashiro said with her usual elder wisdom hidden beneath her childish body. Fumi didn't say a word, believing that she is right. When Arika came, a soft smile came on Mashiro's face but a stern look came from Fumi's.

"Ohayo Arika, what did Wilkins-sensei sent you in for?"

"He wasn't very happy with ma' test and he thought that I was just goofin' around taking my test," she said. While she was talking, Mashiro came around from Fumi's desk to behind Arika, checking her out. _"What a nice sweet body you got there, too bad you don't have the brains to go with it."_

"Let me see your test."

Arika nervously handed her test to Fumi. Mashiro came back to the desk and looked at her test papers with Fumi. They were shocked and somewhat appalled at her answers, but Mashiro noticed something. Throughout the test she was using a lot of big words incorrectly. She knew that Arika is not capable of coming up those words herself. Before she could say something Fumi spoke.

"How did you come up with a sentence like 'It's time to restore chaos and odor'? And what you put down as the definition for a place to conduct scientific experiments – a lavatory? And who taught you how to spell 'coming' this way? Huh? Answer me girl!" Fumi inadvertently screamed out, getting angry over the test. Mashiro put her hand on her right shoulder to calm her down.

Arika, terrified at this point, answered "Suzushiro Haruka-chan."

Mashiro eyes jumped when she heard that and thought "_Haruka-chan? Now it makes sense." _Fumi's eyes jumped but for a different reason. She couldn't believe that she would be dumb enough to go to Haruka for help in English.

"Well it makes sense, for everybody knows that Haruka uses big words improperly."

Fumi shook her head in agreement and then asked "Why did you go to Haruka-san for help in English?" She had to hear the answer to this one.

"Well Nao-san told me that I should go to her for help in English then when I told her I needed help in English, she told she can help since she's a cheese whiz in English."

They couldn't believe how gullible the girl was, but that shouldn't be a surprise considering who raised her, a senile old woman from the country. However she had more to say.

"Also, because I love her and I wanted to spend some time with her."

That dropped a bomb in Mashiro, she couldn't believe what she just heard. She was about to cry but she knew she had to hold her reserved composure.

"You love her? Does that mean she's your girlfriend?" Mashiro asked, having to know if the feeling has been reciprocated.

"Yep, we've been goin' out fo' about two days now," she smiled.

That was even worse in Mashiro's mind. That meant they won't break up for a while. Now her chance of having Arika to herself is very slim. Then Fumi spoke up.

"Yumemiya-san, it sounds like to me that you're trying your best to do well in English."

"I sure am, I want to get all the help I can get."

"Well we can provide you all the help you need. Starting tomorrow, you will go to the Tutoring Center at 1600 hours. One of the volunteer tutors in the center, Harada Chie, will help you. She's great in English and she will help you with the best of her ability."

"Arigato sensei.," she smiled, being thankful for giving her additional resources.

"No problem, just promise me one thing?"

"What's that?"

"Never, never, never, never, never, ask Haruka for help in either English or Japanese ever again! Because the next time you do that will be suspension for you and Haruka-san and both of you will have to do some janitorial work. Understood?"

"Yes sensei!"

"And one other thing, don't listen to any advice Nao-san give you. She cannot be trusted. Now you can go back to your dorm."

"Yes sensei," she said and she left the office. Arika immediately went straight to her dorm. English class was her last class of the day, so she didn't have to worry about missing her other classes.

After she left the office, Fumi looked at Mashiro and said "Well that's strike one on her. I want to use all the resources we got before we give her a personal tutor."

"Understood, well I got to get back to working on the budget. Do you need anything?"

"Except for two tablets of aspirin, I'm okay," she sighed.

"Sorry, I can't help you there. I don't have any," she said as she headed back to the room. When she got in there, she stood still for a while, looking at nothing in particular. Then she started to cry as quietly as she could so that Fumi didn't hear her. The pain of being heartbroken is a terrible one and I know that one very well.

*****


End file.
